[7] Feliciani coordinated the mission work in China, and made substantial purchases of land in the Starstreet Precinct, the earliest burial ground assigned by the Hong Kong Government for the non-Chinese population.

In the first ten years, the missionaries built churches, schools, a seminary, and institutions for the sick, elderly, and orphans.

In response to the request of Prefect Apostolic Théodore-Augustin Forcade, four Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres arrived in Hong Kong on 12 September 1848.

[citation needed] In 1874 the Hong Kong Prefecture was raised to a vicariate apostolic and entrusted to the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan.

The bishops were under the direct authority of the pope, exercising their power in his name, rather than being vested with the office belonging to a diocese.

The first vicar apostolic was Bishop Giovanni Timoleon Raimondi (consecrated 22 November 1874), who died at Mission House, Glenealy, Hong Kong, on 27 September 1894.

The Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris had a procurator, a sanitorium (Béthanie in Pok Fu Lam) and a printing office (Nazareth) at Hong Kong.

St. Albert the Great's Priory), a House of Studies for the whole Far East, at the foot of Mount Nicholson, a place that came to be known as Rosary Hill.

The priory closed and the students moved to the Philippines in 1959, and the premises have since been occupied by Rosaryhill School,[10] with part of the site becoming Villa Monte Rosa [yue].

On 11 April 1946 Pope Pius XII established the episcopal hierarchy in China, raising all the apostolic vicariates to dioceses, Hong Kong among them.

In 1949 refugees fleeing the Chinese communist regime began to pour into Hong Kong, including many Catholics and clergymen from all over China; diocesan activities were effectively restricted to the boundaries of the Colony.

Church organisations also made a similar appeal to the faithful and ordinary citizens through publications, questionnaires and advertisements in newspapers.

After the death of Cardinal Wu on 23 September 2002, his coadjutor Joseph Zen Ze-kiun became the 6th bishop of Hong Kong.

It was the concern of the Church that, as a sponsoring body, she would no longer be empowered in the future to supervise the schools under her sponsorship, nor be able to achieve her goals and objectives in Catholic education.

On 5 June 2005, Zen announced that, if the Legislative Council passed the donation to support schools to create incorporated management committees on 8 July 2005, he would appeal against the decision to the court.

On 22 February 2006, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Bishop Joseph Zen would be raised to the College of Cardinals.

His views on government policies were often at odds with those of Hong Kong's former Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who is also a Catholic.

His death was shortly followed by the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement, which sharply divided the people of Hong Kong, including Catholics.

The diocese argued that this contradicted the Hong Kong Basic Law's article 141 which stated that the management systems established by religious schools would continue as is.